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Sony has warned gamers this week that counterfeit PlayStation 3 controllers are likely to explode or ignite when used.

The controllers, which are "identical in appearance to genuine PlayStation 3 wireless controllers," are becoming more popular, says the company.

While cheaper than the official PS3 controllers, Sony says the "quality, reliability, and safety of counterfeit products is uncertain."

It is unclear which counterfeit controllers Sony is directly talking about, or what company's are selling them, but the products may "ignite or explode, resulting in injury or damage to the user, your PlayStation 3, or other property."

Furthermore, the "SCEA does not support continued functionality of counterfeit or unlicensed controllers in system software updates and these devices may cease to function in the future because of system software updates."

Marvell has unveiled their latest mobile SoC (system-on-a-chip) this week, the ARMADA 628.

The latest chip promises to be a "game changer," running three-cores and clocking in at 1.5GHz.

Marvell says the SoC will run on an ARM v7 infrastructure, likely the Cortex A9 MPCore.

With that computing power, a phone running the chip could playback two simultaneous 1080p 3D video-streams.

Without revealing the capacity of the battery, Marvell says "advanced power-saving features also mean that the chip can play back a high-def video for around ten hours 'on a single charge.'"

Additionally, the company says the first two cores run at high performance, but the final core is "optimized for low-power operation and is clocked at only 624MHz." Because of the low clock speed, the chip can run system-level operations without killing battery by using the more powerful cores.

The chip should make its way into tablets and smartphones within 12 months.

Roku has announced three new set-top boxes this week, each of which are cheaper, smaller and perform better than their predecessors.

The new Roku HD will sell for $60, the Roku XD will sell for $80 and the Roku XDS will sell for $100.

On the lower end, the HD offers 720p streaming, with wired and wireless connectivity. The device is very similar to 2009's Roku HD box, but in a smaller 1" x 5" case. The HD has composite and HDMI outputs.

The mid-level XD has 1080p streaming, with wired and wireless connectivity, including support for 802.11n. Like the HD, the XD has composite and HDMI outputs.

On the high-end, the XDS has 1080p HD streaming, support for dual-band 802.11n, composite and HDMI outputs, optical video output, and a USB port that allows for playback of a number of video files off connected devices, a first for any Roku device.

A federal court in Spain has dismissed all charges against YouTube today, ruling the popular video sharing site cannot be held liable for copyright infringement.

YouTube had been sued by Spanish TV broadcaster Gestevision Telecinco after hours of their content was found available for free on the site.

Google posted the results of the ruling on its European Public Policy Blog.

Telecinco was hoping to have YouTube held liable when users upload copyright-infringing material.

Says Google: "This win confirms what we have always said: 'YouTube operates within the law.'"

"The court recognized that YouTube is merely a content hosting platform and should not be made to pre-screen videos before they are uploaded," the search giant concluded.

According to Bobby Burleson, an analyst with Canaccord Genuity, Intel is sharply cutting prices on their Atom and Core processors, due to unexpectedly low sales in Europe and China.

The analyst says the slow sales were thanks to unexpected overall economic weakness in Asia and Europe.

Within his client note, Burleson says Intel has slashed prices on their Atom and Core i3, i5 and i7 processors by up to 50 percent, while also reducing the price of a few chipsets by 15 percent.

The move is to stimulate demand and clear out excess inventory, adds the note.

Says Burleson (via Xbit): "While notebook demand is likely to uptick near term following these cuts. It will be in large part the result of channel fill by Intel’s OEM customers, especially in China. [...]What is of particular concern is the risk of inventory overshoot as the PC supply chain focuses on China in an aggressive effort to offset weakness in the US and stagnation in Europe."

Last week we announced that Good Old Games, the European gaming company that gives gamers the chance to download old PC games that are very hard to find legally or have been abandoned, had shut down just two years after going live.

This afternoon, the site has re-opened, with a full refresh.

At the same time, the site's owners apologized for closing the service down so abruptly and without warning.

Says the site's blog:

"We know our little game with closing down the site made some of you angry. Once again we'd like to apologize to everyone who felt deceived by us closing down GOG.com without any warning and without giving you access to your games. We apologize for that from the bottom of our hearts, it was done with the best of intentions and hopefully we can make it up to you!"

Finally moving out of beta, the company says the "new sleek new design makes it even easier to browse through the huge catalog, share one's passion for classic games via popular social media, get to know more about the classic games available and recommend favorite titles to other gamers."

Furthermore, the site has introduced GOGmixes, user-created lists of games based on certain themes.

According to the NYTimes, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg will donate $100 million dollars to the Newark, New Jersey public school system, which has long been underfunded.

The donation will be made official on an upcoming Oprah Winfrey show.

Furthermore, the gift would be the first "installment in an education endowment" to be started by the world's youngest multi-billionaire.

While he is currently not worth much, when Facebook eventually goes public Zuckerberg's fortune has been estimated at between $5 - $7 billion.

Currently, the Newark schools have an $800 million annual operating budget, so Zuckerberg's gift is more than significant.

The only condition of the gift is that the state give back "some" control of the city's school system to mayor Cory Booker.

JetBlue has said today that its full fleet of over 150 planes will be getting in-flight broadband starting in mid-2012, after taking months to decide on its wireless strategy.

Most of JetBlue's biggest competitors, including low-cost Southwest Airlines have already begun offering Wi-Fi through Gogo Inflight Internet, or are deploying the service to their fleet currently.

When asked for the reason for the late deployment, CEO Dave Barger said: "This system will be designed for the 21st century, not just for today’s personal connectivity needs, but with the bandwidth to expand to meet tomorrow’s needs as well."

Instead of using a Gogo package, JetBlue will build its service from scratch, partnering with the satellite company ViaSat.

ViaSat currently "serves satellite Internet to over 400,000 subscribers through resellers like DirectTV and DISH Network," says Mashable.

When it launches, the JetBlue in-flight broadband package is expected to have 30-50Mbps downstream.

During his GTC keynote speech, Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang made it clear that the Tegra 3 mobile system-on-a-chip (SoC) was well on its way to being completed, even though devices using the Tegra 2 SoC have still not hit the market.

Early development of the Tegra 4 has already started, added Huang.

The CEO says the plan is to release a new ARM-based processor each year, meaning the Tegra 4 should hit in 2012.

While the timetable sounds nice, the real question will be whether Nvidia can stick to it. The original Tegra was not used in many devices, with the Microsoft Zune HD being the highest-profile device to equip the chip. The ill-fated Kin smartphones also used the SoC.

The dual-core Tegra 2 has been promised for many smartphones and devices, but so far none have hit the market. The Boxee Box, available for pre-order now, was supposed to use a Tegra 2 but the company switched to an Intel processor very late in the manufacturing process.

According to the WSJ, RIM is set to unveil their iPad competitor next week, during a developer's conference in California.

Nicknamed the "BlackPad," the tablet should be released during the Q4.

The tablet will have a 7-inch screen, two built-in cameras, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and 3G access when connected to a BlackBerry smartphone.

Perhaps more notably is the notion that RIM is tossing out its BlackBerry OS in favor of a completely new and unknown OS built by QNX Software, the software company purchased by RIM earlier this year.

QNX has created operating systems since the 1980s.

Eventually, RIM is expected to transition all their BlackBerry devices to the new QNX OS.

Microsoft has released figures today relating to their launch of the Internet Explorer 9 beta and downloads have been very strong.

Released on the 15th, the software giant says 2.1 million people downloaded the beta over the first 48 hours of availability.

By comparison, only 1.3 million downloaded the IE8 beta during its first five days in 2008.

Additionally, the company says it has seen 26 million page views to the "Beauty of the Web" IE9 main page in its first week.

The newly revamped browser includes a combined search/URL bar, tighter integration with the Windows Taskbar, "tear-off" tabs, site pinning, JumpLists and new HTML 5 support.

For more information, including a free download of the beta, visit here: Internet Explorer 9

TAKE NOTE: The IE9 beta does not work in Windows XP.

Netflix has officially launched in Canada today, after first being announced early in July.

Canadian users will be able to stream unlimited movies and TV episodes starting at $7.99 CAD.

All new users are eligible for a one-month free trial (similar to users in the U.S.).

Netflix does make one important note, however, that the service only works in English for the time being, meaning French Canadians will not have a service for them for the time being.

The Canadadian service will only include streaming, with no physical media rentals plans in the works.

"With our launch today in Canada, Netflix is focused on adding meaningfully to the entertainment choices available to Canadian consumers," says CEO Reed Hastings. "Convenience, selection and value are at the heart of the Netflix service, and it is our hope that this resonates with Canadians."

You can check here for more pricing details.

Multiple sources are reporting today that Blockbuster's long-expected Chapter 11 bankruptcy should be filed within the week.

Blockbuster has over $900 million in debt and will use the bankruptcy to restructure most of that debt whilst also closing under-performing stores.

Some sources say the filing could come as early as later today.

"We continue to explore all of our options and are making good progress in our recapitalization process," said Blockbuster this morning. "Our discussions with the studios and bondholders continue to be productive, and we have every reason to believe we will come out of the recapitalization process financially stronger and more competitively positioned for the future."

Under the plan, senior bondholders would have $630 million of their debt converted into equity of the new company. All lower bondholders and all shareholders would be wiped out.

Additionally, senior bondholders will give the company a $125 million loan to operate while under bankruptcy protection.

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings is in Canada this week, as part of the company's launch of a new online video subscription service.

The new service will give Canadians a chance to stream thousands of movies and TV shows for a set monthly fee.

Expanding to Canada marks Netflix's first move to a foreign nation. Apple and Boxee are also preparing Canadian launches in the near future.

Netflix in Canada will only include streaming, with no physical media rentals plans in the works.

Hastings does say there could be some issues: "In Canada, the challenges are licensing the right content... and then taking advantage of the right marketing channels at the right cost."

According to a new research note by Rodman & Renshaw analyst Ashok Kumar, rumors of a smaller, 7-inch Apple iPad have resurfaced.

Kumar says the company will release the smaller iPad during 2011, with a Q1 launch likely.

The analyst bases his conclusions on talks with top Asian component manufacturers such as Pegatron. Pegatron supplies Apple with iPhone and iPad parts.

Kumar also went as far as to say that the manufacturer is currently assembling 20 million CDMA iPhone 4s, meaning the incredibly popular smartphone should be hitting Verizon soon.

The current iPad has a 9.7-inch display and Kumar adds that the upcoming smaller iPad will also include standard and front-facing cameras, allowing for video conferencing.

While it is unclear what benefits a smaller iPad could bring to the market, Kumar suggests that Apple may be trying to drop prices to a more competitive price point.

The cheapest current-gen iPad (16GB/Wi-Fi) costs $499 with the most expensive (64GB/Wi-Fi/3G) costing $829.